Game 48: Flip Of The Wrist

Blue Jackets center Ryan Johansen started with a burst of speed, then hit the brakes and slowed to a crawl, like he was coming in to shake hands with Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller.

With 19,070 standing in First Niagara Center and the game on his stick, Johansen played it cool. Almost too cool.

“I thought he was going to skate (the puck) right into his pads,” Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said. “I didn’t think there was any way he was going to get that off.

If Johansen's stick were a Ginsu knife, the puck would have been chopped to pieces. He went back and forth from his forehand to backhand in a dizzying display, then lifted the puck up and over Miller’s glove from tight range for the shootout game-winner.

The Blue Jackets won 4-3 in a shootout on Johansen's shot in the third round. He was only the shootout participant to score.

The win is the sixth straight for the Blue Jackets, matching a franchise record set late in the 2005-06 season. They’ll go for the franchise mark on Tuesday vs. the Los Angeles Kings in Nationwide Arena.

“I was kind of surprised the (franchise record) was only six games,” Johansen said.

It was not in any way an authoritative win against the NHL’s last-place club.

Sabres defenseman Tyler Myers scored his second goal of the game with 24.9 seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime and, eventually, the shootout. The Sabres also had most of the quality scoring chances in overtime, but the Blue Jackets prevailed.

Blue Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky had 26 saves and was brilliant in the shootout.

“You have to find a way to win,” Blue Jackets right wing R.J. Umberger said. “I think all good teams do that.

“We did some good things. There were some good moments. They’ve been playing really hard at home lately, and anytime you get two points on the road, you pack your bags up quick and get out of there.”

The Blue Jackets ended up chasing the play for most of the first period. The Sabres led 1-0 and 2-1, but the Jackets got goals from defenseman David Savard and left wing Matt Calvert to end the second in a 2-2 tie.

The Blue Jackets went ahead 3-2 on a power play goal midway through the second when Brandon Dubinsky scored off a loose puck in the slot after a series of rebounds following a James Wisniewski shot from the point.

Despite a series of long, powerful shifts in the Sabres’ zone early in the third period – Johansen’s line, with Umberger and Nick Foligno on his flanks was especially effective – the Blue Jackets couldn’t quite strangle the life out of the Sabres.

With 36.4 seconds remaining, a tripping call on Savard gave the Sabres a 6-on-4 advantage after they had pulled Miller for an extra skater. The Sabres, who have earned point in nine of their last 10 home games, called timeout to strategize for the tying goal.

The Blue Jackets sent Mark Letestu out for the faceoff. He had been 7-0 up to that point, while the rest of the Jackets were a combined 18 of 50.

Letestu lost the faceoff, and the Sabres scored 10 seconds later. Myers finished it, but Cody Hodgson made a great pass across the slot to find him in open space.

That was the last time Bobrovsky was solved on this night.

Bobrovsky stopped Matt Moulson, Tyler Ennis and Cody Hodgson in the shootou to give the Blue Jackets a chance. Cam Atkinson and Letestu came up empty in the first two rounds, then Johansen took the ice.

He made the sublime look and sound easy.

“(Miller) did a great job of staying with me,” Johansen said. “I had nothing until I got really close. He kept backing up, so once I was close I just had to get it up over his glove.”

Side dishes:

-- The Blue Jackets are 4-1-0 in shootouts this season. Bobrovsky has stopped 8 of 9 shots.

-- Don't look now, but the Blue Jackets have jumped to fourth in the Metropolitan Division. They are three points behind second-place Philadelphia and the third-place New York Rangers, but the Rangers have played two more games.

-- The Blue Jackets won't practice on Sunday. Back at it on Monday.

-- Tonight's win improved the Blue Jackets to 6-2-1 in the second half of back-to-backs. That includes a 4-1 mark on the road.

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